TOGETHER WITH

It's Monday and Unity’s brutal new install fee has video game developers—especially indie devs—banding together in protest.

ANOTHER EU FINE

TikTok just got hit with a $367 million fine

A 2020 investigation by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission found that TikTok wasn’t doing enough to protect young users. Now, the commission wants TikTok to pay up.

Issues cited by DPC regulators include:

• TikTok’s app signup process, which automatically made teenage users’ accounts public, “meaning anyone (on or off TikTok) could view the content posted by the child user,” per regulators.

• TikTok’s family pairing feature, which is supposed to give a parent or guardian monitoring access to their teen’s account, but regulators say TikTok did not verify whether the adult user was actually related to the underage user.

• “Dark patterns” of app design that push users to pick more privacy-intrusive options for their personal data.

Ultimately, the DPC concluded that TikTok needs to “bring its processing into compliance” with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation within three months.

TikTok, of course, is not thrilled with this fine. Here’s its statement:

“We respectfully disagree with the decision, particularly the level of the fine imposed. The DPC's criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under 16 accounts to private by default.”

About paying that hefty fine, TikTok said it plans to “evaluate next steps.”

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Smosh is back in the hands of its original founders. Here’s how Breeze helped Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox regain ownership:

18 years ago, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox joined forces to create Smosh. The channel was a major hit—but by 2017, the duo split up and new ownership took over.

That all changed this spring. Inspired by their revitalized friendship, Anthony and Ian decided to regain majority ownership and control of Smosh.

That’s where ​Breeze​ came in.

With upfront cash from Breeze, Anthony and Ian were able to reunite as co-owners of Smosh. Breeze isn’t an active investor and doesn’t license catalogs—meaning creators can convert their future YouTube revenue into cash for a simple fixed fee, with no risk of losing their upside or getting into long term partnerships.

Leveraging ​creator-friendly funding from Breeze​ was the start of a brand-new era for Smosh. Since regaining majority ownership, the co-founders’ main channel has…

• Welcomed 1.2 million new subscribers 👋

• Jumped from 16 million monthly views to roughly 52 million 📈

• Earned 130 million back catalog views and 156 million views on new videos 🔥

What does this mean for Smosh?

They now have full creative control, allowing them to upload the types of videos they want, while keeping the full upside to their channel’s financial growth.

Discover what you could do with funding from Breeze!

​Learn more about Breeze →​

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Billboard’s new Top 50 chart recognizes TikTok‘s undeniable influence on the music industry. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• Elon Musk may have rebranded “X,” but 69% of its users (plus some of its own links and landing pages 👀) are still calling it Twitter. Nice. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• Let’s Play videos are sending a Japanese YouTuber to jail. That’s one headline in this week’s Around the World wrap-up of international creator news. (Tubefilter)

DATA • CREATORS ON THE RISE 📈

This TikTok top chef just wants to impress his wife

Jordan Torrey (aka Farnum) has always had a “pretty good palate,” he says, but he didn’t start putting it to work until he started dating fellow content creator Jaclyn Hill.

“Honestly,” he told Tubefilter for our latest Creators on the Rise installment, “I got my real start just by cooking meals to make her happy. Just out of love.”

Once his repertoire of home-cooking dishes had been built up, it was Hill who encouraged him to get on YouTube. It was a logical move: he already owned a videography company and was making commercials for major brands, as well as shooting some videos for brands Hill worked with, like Morphe. But despite all his experience behind the camera, he wasn’t sure he wanted to step in front of it. The internet is brutal, after all.

Again, it was Hill who talked him into giving it a shot. He agreed to post just one video—and now, two years and a million followers across YouTube and TikTok later, he’s still showing the internet how to pile more seasoning on their snacks.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

This week, we're joined by Taylor Lorenz, columnist for The Washington Post and author of the upcoming book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.

Alongside our interview with Taylor: Josh and Lauren talk about TikTok Shop, the Sidemen Charity Match, and an old-school YouTube couple tying the knot.

Catch it all on this week’s episode of Creator Upload on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you’re listening.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.feeling